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She’s been watching out for me the entire time.

He wanted to hold onto that. He really did.

Then the other half of it followed.

A year and a half thinking I couldn’t cut it, without saying a damn word to me about it.

“You read my file⁠—”

“Of course I read your file. I do scheduling, Mac. I saw the medical limitation.”

“—and so you decided what I could handle without asking me.”

She shook her head almost violently. “I decided there was no reason to put you outside for twelve hours in ninety-eight degrees when somebody else could do it and you could work somewhere with air conditioning.”

“That’s deciding what I can handle.”

“No, it’s scheduling around a known medical issue.”

“Without consulting me.”

Jodie set the brush aside. “I schedule around everybody’s limitations. And their strengths.”

“Not like that.”

“Yes, like that. Flint’s TBI means that he needs extended time off if he’s been working long hours or a particularly stressful assignment, so he gets it.”

“Does Flint know you’re doing it?”

She froze. Her mouth opened and she inhaled sharply. Mac hated the immediate flare of satisfaction that went through him.

Don’t.

He didn’t want to win. He wanted her to understand why this hurt.

Jodie sighed as she looked down again. “Yes,” she said finally. “He knows.”

Mac nodded once. “That’s the difference.”

She looked back up, her eyes pleading. “I was trying to keep you safe.”

“How’s your ankle?”

Her eyebrows drew together. “What?”

“Your ankle. How is it?”

“It’s fine.” She wiggled it to prove her point.

“Okay. What if I decided it wasn’t?”

“Mac—”

“What if every time there was a job out here with a lot of walking, I quietly told Willow about it and to move you off it? Give you something easier. And if you asked, she never said why.”

“That isn’t the same thing.”

“Why not?”